An arrangement of that kind is known from DE 34 48 040 A1. The prior art relates to an automatic sawing machine having a sawing station to which workpieces that are to be processed, preferably hollow profile sections, are fed by means of a charging device. The charging device includes a roller conveyor and a feed carriage with vice. By means of a transverse transporting device, a workpiece to be processed is placed on the roller conveyor. The individual rollers of the roller conveyor, which are arranged one behind another in the longitudinal direction of the workpiece, support the workpiece from below counter to the effect of gravity and position the workpiece in the vertical direction in such a manner that the rear end of the workpiece, remote from the sawing station, can be grasped by the vice of the feed carriage. When the rear end of the workpiece has been tightened in the vice, the feed carriage travels together with the workpiece in the longitudinal direction thereof and thereby positions the workpiece relative to the sawing station. During the feed movement of the workpiece, the individual rollers of the roller conveyor roll over the underside of the workpiece. The individual rollers rotate in this instance about central rotation axes of the rollers. The workpiece rest formed by the individual rollers of the prior-known roller conveyor is immovable in the vertical direction. Consequently, the position adopted in the vertical direction by a reference plane or reference axis situated in the interior of the workpiece, for example a longitudinal central plane or a longitudinal central axis of the workpiece resting on the roller conveyor, is dependent on the cross-sectional dimensions of the workpiece.
The object of the present invention is to avoid such a dependence.